Members > Ben Katekar

Ben Katekar SC FCIArb
Arbitrator & Mediator

Contact Ben

Email
ben.katekar@nineac.com

Phone
+61 2 9151 2015

Address
Level 34, 126 Phillip Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Languages
English

Citizenship
Australian

Expertise
Commercial & corporate disputes
Insolvency & Reconstruction
Construction
Joint Ventures
Energy & Resources
Intellectual property (trade marks & trade secrets)
Equity & Property
Professional negligence

Ben is an Australian Arbitrator with over 32 years’ experience in complex commercial disputes, with particular expertise in insolvency, corporate, energy & resources, joint ventures and IP disputes.

Ben’s career began as an insolvency accountant with Arthur Andersen & Co in the late 1980s. He was a senior litigation lawyer for a leading Australian firm, Allens, for 10 years before being called to the Bar in 2003. Ben was appointed Senior Counsel in 2020 and is a leading commercial advocate appearing in the Supreme and Federal Courts in Australia, at trial and appellate level. There is no type of commercial or construction-related case that Ben has not handled in his three-decade-long career.

Key Representations

Successfully acted against the Commonwealth of Australia in a test case over the priorities between employees’ claims and liquidators’ fees: Commonwealth of Australia v Tonks [2023] NSWSC 366 & [2023] NSWCA 285.
Appeared for a major Australian TV producer, winning on all counts against a TV personality in a joint venture dispute over a long-running national television show: CJZ Pty Ltd v Giant Dwarf Pty Ltd & Julian Morrow [2022] NSWSC 444 & [2023] NSWCA 135
Appeared for the parents in a bitter family dispute over inter-generational transfer of farmland Slade v Brose [2023] NSWSC 1025; [2024] NSWCA 197
Vindicating three treasury officers of an iron ore conglomerate who had been sued by the company’s banks for losses caused by the conglomerate’s collapse: Anchorage Capital Master Offshore Ltd v Sparkes (No. 3) [2021] NSWSC 1025 & [2023] NSWCA 88.
Successfully resisting a pastoralist’s attempt to prevent a gas explorer conducting exploratory drilling in the Beetaloo Basin in the remote Northern Territory [2022] NTSC 60.
Appearing for a responsible entity of a listed managed investment fund, overturning resolutions made at a meeting in an attempt to oust it: Primary Securities Ltd v Aurora Funds Management Ltd [2019] NSWSC 630; [2020] NSWCA 230.
Acting for a builder in a complex construction dispute, ultimately hinging on the operation of statutory builders’ warranties Koundouris v The Owners & Units Plan No 1917 [2016] ACTSC 96; [2017] ACTCA 36 (special leave to the High Court refused).

Professional Affiliations

NSW Bar Association (Bar Councillor 2016 – 2018, and member of Professional Conduct Committee and Education Committee)
Australian Bar Association (Member of the ABA’s Advocacy Training Council, convening and coaching at advanced trial and appellate advocacy training courses for experienced barristers)
Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association (“ARITA”) (Professional Member – RITP)
Fellow, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators

Education

Bachelor of Laws (Hons) (ANU) (1991)
Bachelor of Economics (ANU) (1988)
Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration. (University of Oxford, UK) (2024)